white almond cookies

Quick and easy cookies that I baked recently, and since it uses shortening and don't have eggs, I guess it will also be suitable for vegetarians.

Ingredients :

130 g shortening
70 g icing sugar
1/4 tsp salt
80 g cornflour
120 g flour
60 g almond flakes (roasted)

Method :

1) Beat shortening, icing sugar and salt in bowl until smooth. Add in rest of ingredients and mix into a soft dough.
2) Roll out dough to 1 cm thick. Cut into rounds with cookie cutter.
3) Place onto lined baking tray, and bake in preheated oven at 160 deg C. Cool and store in air tight containers.

Clay pot chicken rice

FM dear,
I have been experimenting with cooking clay pot chicken rice. Not that I have not cooked it before, but then all along I have been using a electric rice cooker, it cannot really be called clay pot chicken rice. To quote FJ, "clay pot rice has got to be cooked in a clay pot, otherwise it should be called tasty chicken rice, black rice ( because of the dark soya sauce), or maybe electric rice cooker chicken rice.
So using my recipe for my clay pot rice (http://housewifenotes.blogspot.com/2008/08/claypot-chicken-rice.html), tried cooking the rice in a proper clay pot.
First attempt : Put in the chicken too late, so by the time the chicken was cooked, the bottom rice had burned.
Second attempt : Remembered to add in the chicken earlier, and turn down the flame. Too big a pot of rice, making it rather hard to handle, and the chicken took too long to cook, and there was not much rice crust (which is the tasty part), and some uncooked rice.

My second attempt at clay pot rice. To much rice in one pot, and not enough dark soya sauce

For my third attempt, I decided to purchase another clay pot and divide the recipe into 2. One pot turned out alright, but the other was a bit bland, as the sauce were not poured equally into each pot. However, added a bit too much water, or rather the rice I used could not stand too much water, so the end result was too soft rice.

So far, have not really been successful with cooking the rice in the clay pots, so I guess will have to experiment further, otherwise maybe I will have to think about renaming it electric rice cooker chicken rice as per FJ's suggestion.

wanton in soup

Wanton in soup
FM,
Hope you enjoyed the Chinese New Year gathering with your friends, and I hope your North American friends enjoyed the wanton and the other Chinese food that you all served, and I noticed that you managed to conjure up a Yee Sang, too!

Ingredients :

50 pcs wanton skin

Wanton filling :
200 g prawn meat, diced
150 g minced meat
3 Chinese mushroom, soaked and diced finely
salt, sesame oil, pepper, 1 tsp cornflour

Method :
1) Filling : Mix prawn meat, minced meat, mushroom and seasoning and stir in one direction until sticky and well-combined.
2) Wrap 1 tsp of filling in wanton skin.
3) Bring a pot of water to boil. Add in stock cube, pepper and salt. Cook wanton, and some Chinese mustard leaves or cabbage and serve in soup.


wanton all ready to be dunked in the soup

Note : Alternatively, heat 2 cups of oil in a frying pan, and deep fry the wanton for deep fried wanton. Serve with chili sauce.
For a tasty soup, keep the prawn shells to make the soup stock for the wanton. Boil a pot of water with the prawn shells. Strain and discard the prawn shells.

Easy chicken wings

easy chicken wings

Dear FM,
I found this easy recipe for cooking chicken wings, and they turn out so nice and tasty that I think I got to share it with you. It is rather simple to cook, and the ingredients are what you would have in your kitchen. You know how I am always looking for easy recipes for you.
Oh yes, how are your cooking experiments going on. Been 6 months of living on your own and surviving on your student budget. Is it still choy sum, eggs and fried pork slices? Or have you become more adventurous in your cooking. By the way, the noodles you cooked look quite delicious from the pictures. Looking forward to having you cook it for me!
Ahh, the recipe for the chicken wings -

Ingredients :
6 chicken wings
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
2 tbsp light soya sauce (or to taste)
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
3 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tsp black pepper

Method :
1) Marinade chicken wings with the soya sauces, sugar, sesame oil, garlic and black pepper for a few hours, or overnight.
2) Place chicken wings and marinade into a non stick pan. Add in a cup of water.
3) Cover pan and bring to the boil for 5 minutes. Remove cover and continue simmering over low heat until sauce has thickened. Dish up and serve.



chicken wings cooking in the pan

FM dear,
After returning from the supermart with your weekly food supplies, clean and marinade the chicken wings, and then freeze them. Just defrost a few hours ahead before cooking. The wings is supposed to be served with the sauce, but I found the sauce to be so oily, so I discarded it.

CK mentioned that the chicken wings looked quite familiar when I served them. Don't you think they looked like the wings that we had in the steamboat outlet in Bandar Sunway. Remember how everybody rushed for them when they were served. Could never understand why, and neither could your uncle!